Motif · from book 6
Crawler on crawler
What the eighth floor is designed to make happen: keys for one squad in four, doorways as hostages, Flee as theft, a floor 'to turn us against one another'. Ren denies them a fight; Imani will not take a key; Louis takes the skull so the others need not; and thirty-three thousand reach the ninth 'not scattered, not broken, and not afraid'.
First appears: Book 6
Series arc
As of book 8. The thing the dungeon wanted since the leaderboard; in book 8 the floor's design: every dead NPC team is replaced with crawlers, Li Na's dread makes a heat kill itself, Mordecai's math wants fifteen hundred more deals and 715 go, and the final heat puts friends against friends. 'We were crawlers, and they were not.'
Through book 6
Donut, when the squads must fight for keys: 'I don't want to fight other people' (B6 ch. 27); Carl, the night before the climb, thinks of 'the man I knew I'd find up there' (B6 ch. 40); as squads trip his traps at the exit he thinks 'I should've wired the whole capitol building' (B6 ch. 52); Ren, with the last key at stake, sits down rather than fight (B6 ch. 59); Carl, in chat, tells the crawlers to 'stop fucking fighting' (B6 ch. 62); 33,804 crawlers are left at the floor's end, of the 38,532 who reached it (B6 ch. 72).
Through book 8
Prepotente's first message warns against killing other teams (B8 ch. 3); Zhang's heat is refilled with crawlers, and Carl thinks 'And so it begins' (B8 ch. 17); Elle's and Louis's heats are at risk (B8 ch. 22); Zhang draws an all-crawler heat (B8 ch. 33) and Team Flamengo lands in Carl's (B8 ch. 40). Li Na's dread makes a heat kill itself (B8 ch. 51); Carl asks the bar to protect every team (B8 ch. 57); Mordecai's math wants fifteen hundred more deals, and 715 go (B8 ch. 69, B8 ch. 79); the final heat puts friends against friends and NPC-only heats beside them (B8 ch. 80). 'We were crawlers, and they were not' (B8 ch. 82).
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride | 1/74 | Ch. 27 · the book's own page |
| 8 — A Parade of Horribles | 6/99 | Ch. 15, Ch. 57, Ch. 69, Ch. 78, Ch. 79, Ch. 82 · the book's own page |
By book
Crawler on crawler in book 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
The AI says keyless squads may transfer to the same location, so the potential for crawler-on-crawler violence is quite high (ch. 27). 'I don't want to fight other people' (ch. 27); 'the man I knew I’d find up there' (ch. 40); 'I should’ve wired the whole capitol building' (ch. 52); Ren refuses (ch. 59); 'stop fucking fighting' (ch. 62); 33,804 remaining when it ends (ch. 72).
Crawler on crawler in book 8 — A Parade of Horribles
Prepotente's first message warns against killing other teams (ch. 3); Zhang's heat is refilled with crawlers, and Carl thinks 'And so it begins' (ch. 17); Elle's and Louis's heats are at risk (ch. 22); Zhang draws an all-crawler heat (ch. 33) and Team Flamengo lands in Carl's (ch. 40). Li Na's dread makes a heat kill itself (ch. 51); Carl asks the bar to protect every team (ch. 57); Mordecai's math wants fifteen hundred more deals, and 715 go (ch. 69, ch. 79); the final heat puts friends against friends and NPC-only heats beside them (ch. 80). 'We were crawlers, and they were not' (ch. 82).